Cleverly Catching the Crooks

In the 1920s the father of my friend, Bud Beeson, lived at Farewell Bend between Baker and Ontario. He was a farmer with a small herd of dark red shorthorn cattle. In the fall he would be missing numerous calves. while many of his neighbor’s cows would have two calves apiece.

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Resisting Temptation

When I get up in the middle of the night, I look out the windows. I’m looking for the bear. Before we built the deer fence around our place I often saw deer in the yard at night, and sometimes a cow or a bull or an elk. The fence stopped those nocturnal visits, but the fence doesn’t stop the bear. We know that he’s been there because of the piles of manure that he’s left. He comes to raid our orchard. He loves the plums and the apples, and he left evidence of his presence right in our back yard.

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Hidden Wedges

“The ice storm [that winter] wasn’t generally destructive. True, a few wires came down, and there was a sudden jump in accidents along the highway…

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Diligent or Delinquent

It occurs to me that Satan is like a window. He’s easy to see through, yet he is an invisible barrier into which the unwary can crash with fatal consequences.

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The Plan of Redemption

Before we ever came to earth, and before the world was even created, a plan was put into place by which every one of God’s children could be brought back into His presence.

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A Sin-resistant Generation

Inspired men and women have flooded the earth with products and materials that are resistant to all sorts of harmful things.

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Repentance

I am nearly 69 years old. I thank God for this long life, and for the opportunity it has given me to repent and to put my life in order.

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Turkeys

I have the opportunity of studying wild turkeys from my living room window. Two family groups combined last fall …

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The Door Is Closing

I am beset with temptations just as all men are. My greatest desire is to be good, and to do good, and to follow Jesus faithfully. But I’m weak.

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Sin and Sea Shells

Marjorie should not let me go out by myself. I succumbed to a big temptation yesterday. If she had been with me she could have stabilized me. She has always been a big stabilizing influence in my life. As it is, she frowned at me when I told her what I’d done.

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Downwind of the Spirit

“Keep yourself downwind of the Spirit.” That was my waking message this morning. Where did it come from? What does it mean?

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Parable of the Lazy Hawk

A noble red-tailed hawk once sailed majestically through the skies surveying the sordid world below. The skies, the air, sunlight, life, and freedom were his. He ruled his realm. He was happy. He was free. But his sharp eyes noticed a dead squirrel on the road below. Normally he only ate fresh food; but succumbing to laziness, and giving no forethought, he lowered himself for a closer look, extended his talons, and seized the prey. Alas, he’d landed right in front of a speeding truck. The truck swerved, and by the narrowest of margins missed the foolish hawk who launched himself back into the air, a wiser bird, having this once been granted a second chance.

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Roadkill

As I drove to church I noticed a red-tailed hawk flying ahead to my right. He was being buzzed and harassed by two blackbirds. Suddenly he swooped lower and to the left, right in front of my vehicle. I thought at first that his maneuver was an effort to evade the pesky blackbirds, but instead he landed upon a dead squirrel on the roadway right in front of me. During the next second his talons gripped the squirrel, I swerved to the right to miss him, and his trajectory and momentum managed to lift him safely off to my left. It was a close call.

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They Know Not What They Do

During Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, He had very little to say. One of His few utterances was on Calvary as the Roman soldiers carried out their orders to nail Him to the cross. He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34).

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